Composition

Published by Denise Rene
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Jesús Rafael Soto

Jesús Rafael Soto (1923–2005) worked as the director of the School of Fine Arts in Maracaibo in 1947 and relocated to Paris in 1950, where he became part of a generation of artists experimenting with motion in art. He participated in the landmark exhibition Le Mouvement at Galerie Denise René in 1955, alongside artists such as Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp and Victor Vasarely – a defining moment in the development of kinetic art. During the same decade, he began making kinetic constructions via the use of industrial and synthetic materials such as nylon, Perspex, steel and industrial paint. Soto’s work sought to evoke movement, spatial volume and tactility, a vision that is exemplified by his renowned Pénétrables series. Major exhibitions of Soto’s works have been held at Signals London (1965); the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (1971); the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1974); Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris (1979); Musée du Jeu de Paume, Paris (1997); Museo Tamayo, México (2005) and Guggenheim Bilbao (2019). His works are in the collections of museums around the world such as Tate, London; Museum Ludwig, Germany; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome and MoMA, New York.